6 ms·
Little Big Adventure is painted down in the article, but it is also a masterpiece. It plays uniquely, in a way that's hard to express. I happened to find a cop
by bsdubernerd 7y ago
Little Big Adventure is painted down in the article, but it is also a masterpiece. It plays uniquely, in a way that's hard to express.
I happened to find a copy in a discount bin almost a decade after it was released. Despite the dated graphics, the charm of the game feels absolutely tangible throughout the game. I completed the game and did so again after another 5 years through dosbox. I bought the sequel (LBA2) because of this, of which I have mixed feelings.
The controls of Alone and LBA always felt natural to me, so I cannot share this sentiment of confusion. The sudden camera jumps in Alone in the Dark can be confusing, but then again I actually played "Resident Evil" before Alone (it was only then that I became interested in the genre).
I have to say that there are several french games that really stood out to me due to the artistic and general playstyle in general.
"Heart of Darkness", from Chahi of Another world fame stays true to his style. The "Gobliins" series from Coktel vision are similar to lucasart's games, but have a completely different humor/feel to them. Coktel Vision did several positively weird games (Inca 2, for example).
I played most of these games decades after they were made just for curiosity, simply going by the "I liked this game, let's see what the author/s also did". Sometimes you do really hop into masterpieces that stand the test of time.
If you have youtube channels that dig into this sort of stuff, I'd love to hear about it. I follow some retro channels, but I didn't see those really mentioned anywhere aside from the usual "Another World" and "Price of Persia".
- cousin_it 7y agoDune and Flashback as well.
- onemoresoop 7y agoYea, was a big fan of both games at the time.
- dmix 7y agoLittle Big Adventure was released by a french game company (in an "enhanced" version) in 2015 and is now available on Steam and elsewhere: https://store.steampowered.com/app/397330/Little_Big_Adventure__Enhanced_Edition/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/397330/Little_Big_Adventu...
- bsdubernerd 7y agoLooking at the screenshots and description, I was immediately thrown off by the "enhanced gameplay" and the fact that interactive items in the level seem to be highlighted with the magnifier icon. Being a fan of this game, I'd say that unless you can turn those off, play the original. The fixed throw distance plays a crucial role in several of the puzzles. What's the point of interacting with the environment if you can go directly at the spot and pickup everything? There are, again, sections where only speaking with the villagers hints you at the right locations. This is _very_ important for the gameplay mechanics.
- dmix 7y agoThey can't help but mess things up can they. Although I've found some enhanced games like Resident Evil have managed to do it properly. But you have to have someone who really appreciate the original doing the update. Someone opinionated on the matter like yourself.
- bsdubernerd 7y agoThere have been countless bad games where players have to resort to a "probe everything" approach in order to find items which are needed to progress in the game. But "good games" generally strike a balance between all the gameplay mechanics and that's precisely how they came to be known to be good. You wouldn't change the way mario jumps in order to reach higher places and call it "enhanced gameplay". Similarly you wouldn't show every hidden question box with a blaring icon so that you'll always know where all the secret boxes are. These two elements are defining features of the game. You don't change that. I think the current approach is to make games so approachable to "casual gaming" that anything deep loses meaning. Many old games that I consider beyond "good" wouldn't fly today. But adapting these games to a more modern hand-in-hand approach will simply destroy them.
- dmix 7y agoAgreed, games are turning into a Disney themepark tours of cool cinematic experiences. This is why indie game people are doing so well, they are limited in scope and are forced to make actual games. I still think the gaming scene is in a good place though. Always tons of good stuff around.
- atombender 7y agoEcstatica [1] is another game contemporary to LBA, and coincidentally quite similar to AitD, that was similarly fascinating and weird/different-feeling. It's an early 3D game uses a unique game engine that renders everything as ellipsoids. You'd think it must be French -- it has that inscrutable feel of some French games -- but it was in fact British. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstatica https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstatica
- bsdubernerd 7y agoNice! It reminds me of another fighter game that used ellipsoids to render characters (the name escapes me though)!
- layoric 7y agoGobliins was a great series of games, fond memories of the humor.